Your Last Day on Earth?

These past few days, the Sun has wended its way through the Pleiades—those ill-reputed last degrees of Taurus–and made a big, fat ol’ Full Moon in Scorpio. And during these days, I’ve been hearing a lot about the end of the world. (Again!)

According to a certain branch of Evangelical Christians, tomorrow (May 21st, 2011) is Judgment Day. The Believers will ascend and experience The Rapture, leaving us Sinners to our own vices and devices. If they’re right and all those True Believers ascend, then they’ll leave the rest of us in peace. If it doesn’t happen, then maybe they’ll be embarrassed enough to let up on us sinners for a while.

For those of you who are wondering about the astrology of it, no, tomorrow’s chart doesn’t look like a disaster, any more than any other day. In fact, with Sun in Gemini exactly square Neptune in Pisces, it looks like a perfect setup for a hoax or a delusion.

Still, I have to admit that I’ve been thinking of the end of the world a bit lately—the end of MY world, anyway. How many of you have started thinking the unthinkable in the wake of recent disasters? Japan’s huge quake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown? The siege of tornadoes in the southern United States? Floods along the Mississippi? It seems like disaster is in our face daily.

Are you like me? I usually shrug it off, convinced it will never happen where I am. But it CAN happen here, I’m seeing now.

Portland, Oregon is on a major fault line, sitting between two volcanoes—one active (Mt. St. Helens) and one seemingly inactive but occasionally burping (Mt. Hood). We have mudslides on our rain-saturated hills, and it’s a wonder we didn’t have more flooding in this record-breaking rainy winter.

So, yeah, I’ve started thinking seriously about what I would do if SOMETHING happened. I’m not losing any sleep about it. For sure, I’m not moving from this beautiful city—several times at the top of the list of America’s Best Places—but I am pondering, productively, what I’d do in a disaster.

If you’ve started thinking about it, too, that’s a positive thing. I’m not bringing this up to panic you, just suggesting that you consider what your alternatives and options are. Make emergency preparations like the ones suggested in the links below.

At the time of the quake, I made a “grab and go” bag to carry me through the 2-3 days it might take for Red Cross or the National Guard to establish shelters and get relief supplies to us. It sits on a shelf just beside my front door.

In case today IS the last day, I’ve made a plan, and it’s a sound one.

I and a couple of fellow Johnny Depp fans are going to the opening of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I’d kick myself to Kingdom Come if the world came to an end tomorrow and I hadn’t gone to see it.

Then we’ll go to Happy Hour at a nice restaurant nearby for a late lunch. Instead of my usual monthly limit of one frozen, blended, salt-rimmed margarita, I’ll have two, one for Johnny and one for me.

Readers, have recent events changed your thinking any? Have you made any preparations for a crisis? Where would you go if SOMETHING happened? And, most important of all, how are you going to spend today, our last day on earth?

Responses

The 2012 predictions (galactic alignment, Mayan calendar, etc.) and recent crises (Haiti, Japan earthquakes) got me thinking, and preparing. Living in northern California, I knew it was time to update our earthquake kit, so I finished that a couple of months ago.

The May 21 prediction seems silly at best. I’ll be spending this “last day on earth” the way I do every Friday: dinner out and a movie with my husband. 🙂

I’m with you, Donna. I’d really like to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean before I turn of the lights ad leave the building for good. I’m fatalistic about these things. If it happens, it happens. My area of the world doesn’t really get any earth quakes, and I think the last tsunami was about 10.000 yrs ago. I will however bring my common sense if something should happen. And today? I’ll sit at my computer and work. I have a deadline looming, that right now, scares me more than any other calamities. Doomesday or not …
Now what kind of Astrological personality predicts these things? A very Plutonian/Jupiterian? Or perhaps a Pluto/Neptune combo?

The who-ha over this is because an evangelical minister names H Connor (I think) did some mathematical calculations, well turns out he did some before, and it was supposed to end Sept 6, 1994….now he re-did it and says it is tomorrow…..but I stand by the Bible verse that says no one knows when, found somewhere in one of the 4 gospels. Sun sq Neptune tomorrow??…..then I say ya it is a delusion, and begun by him.

I also agree that we are seeing more and more disaster news of earthquakes, floods, and so on….the end times are upon us, as well as just being able to hear news very quickly from all over the world…..come to think of it, it is also in the Bible that information will be instant at the end times…..so it is upon us, but I don’t think tomorrow.

@ Natalie: I ran a very popular doomsday site for 8 years although it was about verifiable versions of doomsday: peak oil, the gulf oil spill, the economy, the drug war, depleted uranium, etc.,

I have a Jupiter-Pluto square. Jupiter in Cancer in the 12th square Pluto in Libra in the 3rd. And a wide Mercury in Cancer conjunction with Pluto. A Cancer Sun.

My theory is the dark side of cancer is dependency: dependency on oil, narcotics, financial flows from narcotics, etc. 12th house is collective karma. U.S. has lots of planets in cancer so I was attuned to the Cancer collective karma bubble fuck that the U.S. has turned into. So I used the internet (Pluto in the 3rd house) to spread the word.

Cancer is also the “worry wort” of the zodiac. The U.S. is so deep in denial that us Cancerians, I think, worry even more to make up for the fact those around us are not worrying at all even though they probably should be.

Liz Greene says Pluto in the 11th is the Doomsday Prophet. I guess Pluto in the 3rd would be the Doomsday Messenger.

Pluto in the 9th (religion) might have doomsday potential too.

A colleague of mine, also very popular on the reality-based doomsday circuit, is an Aquarius Sun/Cap moon with Mars/Venus/Jupiter in Pisces.

Hi Matt. Thank you for your great answer – that was really fascinating.
But making predictions on facts like oil spills and the economy, the danger from placing a nuclear power plant on top of a fault line (talk about hubris), is very different from making predictions based on a prohpecy or counting numbers from the Bible. And since your site was about verifiable things, your weren’t making the far-out predictions that the one on Saturday is based on. So perhaps this kind of predictions (like this one today) is a pluto/neptune thing: creating an illusion to get power over people. I have a jup-pluto opposition, but Jup in Pisces in the third. I love all kinds of end of the world stories, but I don’t take them serious. I’m not a strong believer of the end of the world, mostly because I don’t really believe that anything ends.

The end of the world? The Evangelicals have predicted this once already and it didn’t happen. I’m going to do what I usually do on Fridays, dance, hang out with friends and joke about what’s not going to happen 🙂

As for earthquakes, that is a possibility with the sun in late Taurus, but I won’t lose sleep over it unless my bed shakes (this happened once years ago when the Sun was in Taurus when a small tremor hit at 7 a.m. and woke me up from a sound sleep).

“… it’s one small (as usual) group of people thinking their brain is bigger than God.”

Well said, softsokk – I agree! Thank you.

Ironically, the Book of Proverbs warns against the foolishness in relying too much on our own “understanding” or “reasoning”. If the birth information provided by Wikipedia is correct, Mr. Camping has Mercury conjunct Pluto (in Cancer) trine Uranus in Pisces. With such a powerful combination, perhaps the temptation to believe in the absolute authority of his own mind was too great to resist, at least insofar as his attempts to mathematically calculate the End of Days are concerned.

Adding as a general comment, I still think it’s a good idea to live each day joyfully, mindfully and with humility, as if it might be our last. This is tough to do and I’m not claiming to always manage it. But from both a practical and spiritual perspective, it seems like a worthwhile habit to get into, regardless of religion. We’re all going to die eventually and as unlikely as it may seem, there are no guarantees it won’t be today – we humans are inherently vulnerable.

By: LB on May 21, 2011 at 6:41 pm

Oh Katley, they have predicted it over and over again, not just twice.

Today was the first time in almost 8 months that the sun was out and the temperature reached 70 degrees. I took a longer than normal lunch break and walked the river, watching seagulls, crows, osprey and cormorants doing their thing on the muddy riverbanks. And tonight we’re going to the opera on our bicycles. A good day to die indeed. (see you tomorrow)

Hey, Donna, go for it! Make it three margaritas–one for you, one for Johnny, and one for me –there in spirit…. my friend Merlot and I will be thinking of ya!
Now for the backstory: It’s not just the Pleiades. The ancient Chaldeans recognized the star we call ALGOL, at 25d28′ Taurus, as the “most malefic”. Like Sirius it is a double star but with a rotation of 69 hours resulting in an occultation of 9 hours as viewed from Earth. (Were the skies so much clearer or human eyesight so much better that the Dogon tribe could see the occultation of Sirius and pass down that knowledge to this day?).
The interesting part—in Chaldean Arabic the star is called
Al- Ghoul from whence we get the Arabic to Latin to English words: GHOUL, GOLEM, and ALCOHOL…(excuse me, I need another libation, lol)…aaah, that’s better…
These Christian/Pagan/Islam wars have destroyed so much ancient wisdom. The burning of the library at Alexandria, the looting of Istanbul, the sack of Rome, and the present day demolition of Iraqi libraries and museums…what a waste….
And when all is said and done, (MAYBE TOMMOROW?)…damn, but that Johnny Depp looks good….crawling his way out of some Kentucky trailer park….go figure…it’s in his chart! Best, B.

LOL! I just got back from Johnny, leisurely lunch with friends, and just one gegunda margarita, and I see y’all have been having a party here without me. Glad to see you’re all in good spirits. Only one thing I learned today that I did not like–that mermaids are evil. Donna

I got late for this party, but just wanted to add that I did celebrate that we were all alive and kicking by the 22nd! Had the chance to have brunch in a lovely Farm to Table restaurant in lower Manhattan, and raised my glass of mimosa (sorry…too early for a margarita) and thought of you lovely ladies that can go through these difficult times with grace, and above all: Humor!
p.s Ohh Berta, my grandma told me about the Library of Alexandria when I was 9…I’m still mad about it!

Yes, things are getting stranger and stranger, time has accelerated, the money thing more or less sucks for most of us,and weather- ai yai……HOWEVER…..
(IMHO) we will get to stick around and have to fix everything that we broke. People who think they are getting out of here scot-free are delusional. And when was the last time anyone had a detailed heads up – date/ time- for a disaster….??? ( with the exception of Noah….)……

Considering the fact that here in south america (argentina for instance) nobody knows that group or speaks about that, i m thinking that such prediction is only for northamerica, so be my guests here we are save! And of course we can go to the movie (Pirateas of the Caribbean) and have many Margaritas! 🙂 We must celebrate life everyday

Rosario, I went to several foreign news sites, and the only place where I found anything mentioned about the Rapture was on two English language sites: the CBC from Canada, and the BBC from Britain. The rest of the world probably either doesn’t know or doesn’t care 🙂

Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine
Jesus cried, and somebody grinned — don’t whine
Jesus smiled his love on the least,
scattered his manna that the lowly might feast
All you remember is that slavering Beast
so remind me why you find less than fine
daring to share a peace of mind
about kindness more
than Divine

46664

Caging the Beast
“call me after the Rapture” I
post on religious social network
sites.
Have you read Yeats’ “Second Coming”?
After the prophecy
After the hard, hard rain
after the rainbow
Call me. We should get together.

finally the weather here in pdx has been SO NICE…just in time for the end of the world!!! hahahahaha

my plan to see the “bridesmaids” movie is on hold until well past this apocalyptic may 21st, as i promised my sister i would see it with her first and her family has been in disneyworld all week. (surely the world can’t end as long as disneyworld is open?!)

I’m going to leave you in peace. If you can’t tell the difference between one group of misguided people, and the rest of the evangelical world, you’re not a writer I want to continue to follow.

I’m sorry you’re consumed with hatred of something you can’t even accurately describe or identify. Best to be educated so as not to be seen as ignorant. Being ignorant of this current event sorta puts you in the same category as they are.

I’m not evangelical. I’m not bigoted either.

But I do plan to check back to see if that finely-honed stiletto comes out at me. That will most assuredly be interesting.

I can’t be the only one astounded at Parin’s negative bail-out. I may have missed some exchanges that were deleted. Anyway, I was sharpening MY stiletto and then just set it aside…like junk mail.
I’ve posted TUI and cringed when I later read it. (TUI–“typing under the influence”– of anger, sorrow, denial, or just that extra glass of wine when I thought I was being clever…).
Bigotry? I got a look at my own in that crack I made above about trailer parks…OUCH! Job loss, floods, storms, nuke plant meltdowns,—we’re all just one disaster away from being homeless…when I’ll bet some nice people would let us take shelter in their trailer.
Parin, if you’re still watching for backlash I sincerely hope that you won’t find any here…as it’s never interesting and it “frightens the horses”. Best, Berta

By: Berta on May 23, 2011 at 11:08 am

are you afraid, then, of appearing ignorant? Not so much being ignorant as appearing ignorant? The difference between ignorance and stupidity is that the ignorant have potential. I am addressing Parin here.

I’ve figured it would be a great honor for me to witness one of the most important events for human kind and this planet. Just think of all those people that lived and died and never really saw – with their own eyes – anything special. Lost in the middle of some age, not really knowing what it means, how it fits in the larger view, the great things that came after they were long gone.

having everything end along with you – being sure that nothing survives you, nothing goes on after you end – now that’s one special gift the Universe can give one. I’m not sure I deserve it and I don’t dare to be that full of myself to think I might …. I think the world will not even blink when I go. and after that, there will be wonders I can’t even imagine in my wildest dreams. this is just one more moment in the fabric of time; no more or less special than any other

as long as there is the quickening desire of consciousness to experience itself there will be no end to the manifestation. And with that the transmigration of consciousness into corporeality from noncorporeality . So the “end” which comes with each out breath is followed by a new beginning. The Maya did not talk about the “end” ever. They talk about cycles of becoming and we are entering into a new cycle. That is all. Cycles often are not marked by lines in the sand. There is a blending from the old to the new fast or slow it still happens in time as we experience it. So I for my part will do nothing out of the ordinary as the manifestation of reality is, in and of itself, extraordinary. Yee haa! giddy-up

Been gone a few days. The Bi polar, burnt out thyroid- hepatitis C , person who takes NO MEDICATION; that has been chasing my son , got him thrown in jail.
Since I could make no contact with the jail in the major city 500 miles away where he is; except for robotic message phones I decided to go there. Never mind I am car less. The car died during the Gulf Oil spill. transit Neptune/ Saturn square Pluto ad nausea m.
What a trip. My little brother got me almost halfway there where some girl friends dressed me up in three coats , 2 pants and leather gloves. I felt like a little kid getting put into a giant snow suit
That’s because my Nephew was en route on his Motorcycle to take me to the cities. Wow it was fun! However the 3 coats posed a problem in me being able to turn my head to see around. So I could only move my eyes from side to side and I could see the waning full moon, high in the night sky and get peeks of the sides of the semi trucks we passed…they sure made the wind that much more strong.
The next day he had to Drive a Train to Fargo from Minneapolis and dropped me at the jail en route to the train yard.
I had a good, interesting, informative talk with a person there but was not allowed to see my son , nor would they give him a message. It was against their rules. Dropped him a letter with cash he should get after this weekend.
After that my girl friend picked me up and and we went to the scene of the crime with a police unit . I wanted them there as witnesses so she could not spread any lies about me like she has about my son. She can be extremely violent.
Upon seeing the police she did her sex trip to wow them , never taking her sparkling eyes off them as she screamed and postured that her Social Worker said, not to let Grandma take the babies.
She also has a smashed in hip from a car accident when she was 18 and physically cannot handle 2 babies. Let alone psychologically. She destroyed her thyroid with meth and has had two other children already taken away from her.
She had phoned me a few days earlier to see if she could drop the two yr. old on me after the 1st when she gets her check to travel north.
But she made a big drama play act that;” OH NO the Social Worker said; Don’t give them to Grandma!” I said,” FINE” and left. I know she will be worming around to drop them on me after the 1st, but I wont take them unless she signs them over to me.
She did not know that a domestic assault charge would mean he would not be allowed to see her for a year and she is fuming over that. Already making plans to circumvent that law.
I couldn’t be happier that he was just able to complete his last final for the college school year and that he is safely away from her sick clutches. Hes got a packed 12th house so he needs the peace , quiet, and down time jail affords his scholarly mind.A good place for reflection.
My girlfriend gave me a ride halfway back, where I could return my other girl friends their cloths . The big end of the world was to happen that day….the rapture, so I told my friend who is a Christan , NOT to evaporate just yet, because she was driving! ha ha We both had a good laugh.
Actually it was an END….the end of being dragged into a bi polar possessed creatures nightmare dramas.
I informed all the authorities I could think of including Child Protection and the ball is in their court. Another friend who is a retired Appeals Court Judge said we were getting old and didn’t need to be running around like this…he said I did everything possible to ensure the safety of the babies. He said just go home and wait until they come to me. Its only a matter of time.
I like the Line from” The Ring of Power” that Gandalf said to Frodo. “All that matters is what we do with the time we have left.”

Barehand, I love the way you take care of business!
I don’t know what it is that I admire most about you: your bravery, your unpretentious sense of dignity or your huge heart?-
Lions should be proud that you’re one of their crew.
Take care 🙂

Thanks for the compliments VR and the sympathy Donna.
As a mother and Grandmother , to be put in this position is not easy and I hear more and more Grand parents these days are grappling with it. We can lead a mule to water but we can not make them drink.
The last thing left after doing all we can do is to Pray for them and for all the lost souls amongst humanity, specially the innocent little children who are at their mercy.
I always pray that the Great Spirit will help humanity become everything the Creator wants them to be.

There is a saying from Traditional Native American Indian Culture and that is:
” The woman is the backbone of the Culture”, and
” When the woman falls , the family falls.”
It is a rare man who can carry on with the children in a good way, without a good woman .

By: Barehand on May 23, 2011 at 7:32 am

Hang in there, Barehand! Hope you got out of the Twin Cities before the tornado hit…(guess they found that you can be your own tornado of power! As a woman HAS to be).

By: Berta on May 23, 2011 at 10:25 am

Dear All,

I have been reading the aforementioned posts and I grieve. Bipolar is just another name for “abused childhood.” How do I know? Never mind, just quite a few dealings with those poor souls.

Donna, about doomsday. For many doomsday is not reconciling with the life we have in front of us. It is a way of NOT dealing with what IS. And for many, way too many, it is mankinds inhumanity towards others. Were we to take the bounty of what is presented on earth, share instead of fear, so many problems would be alleviated. Would that it were so easy.

I feel, these are strange times indeed. Weatherwise, environmentally, and socially. I believe we stand at the apex or threshold of an era that can move in either direction. Good or bad. If you believe in paradoxes.

I agree, all matter transforms. Nothing is ever lost to nothingness.

This weekend I and my son experienced being with someone who literally grew up in a culture of abuse on the streets of the worst place in California for meth. Why we went to such a place is a sad long story, but she is family. I on the other hand grew up in a completely different atmosphere. Not of priveledge, but yes, of general security.

I do feel as though time is speeding up and the lessons of Pluto keep appearing everywhere in my life. Pluto – drugs, worry, prophecy, rain, nuclear fallout, etc. Pluto is most definitely sending out messages to us all! But, I also believe this planet is warning or calling us up to take heed and notice what each and everyone of us can do to protect ourselves to the best of our abilities. As you wrote, prepare yourself for cataclysms as best you can. Take care of your children around “fanatical” cultures be they religous or otherwise. There may not be much we can do directly about the nuclear issue, but we can write to our congresspeople and take a stand against this most dangerous of energy supplies.

And drugs, well, we should know better than to abuse them and perhaps seeing the effects of those devestated by poverty and a feeling of hopelessness will awaken us to the unsustainability of living in a culture that ignores whole segments of our population.

I am sad. I even feel dirty. I think it is because in the last few months I have been privy to so much hopelessness, sadness, and degredation.

Thank you for your amazing posts. I so love them. They do sustain me when I need them most. Here’s to wishing everyone a more “Margarita”- like existense.

Thank you, Adela. You, for one, are out there experiencing what is going on in the world rather than hiding from it so not to be saddened. Things are NOT good. I just read that the Supreme Court ordered 30,000 prisoners released in California because the overcrowding is so severe as to constitute “cruel and unusual punishment.” Releasing 30,000 felons is scarey. Donna

I wouldn’t be afraid of the so called Felons. They hand Felon wraps out like hot cakes to poor whites and young men of color for ridiculous crimes . Then they passed a law that Felons are NOT allowed into most Colleges and Universities , nor can they have certain good jobs. That’s how they keep the poor, poor and the rich richer.

The real criminals never see the inside of prisons and if they do they have every comfort. They pat rapists on the head and release them out on the street to terrorize the citizens and keep the public afraid and isolated from their neighbors.
Specially in cities.
Easier to control that way.
It would be interesting if the public ever really woke up.